Quality Paper
By Darren Hupke
The chores are done, the house is clean, it’s your day off from work, and you have the newest issue of your favorite periodical in your hands.
Close your eyes. You know what magazine I’m talking about. You can feel the pages in your hand. The weight is substantial enough to know you won’t be bored for quite a few hours. The cover stock is slightly thicker than the interior pages. Do you notice a matte finish, or is it glossy? How about the dimensions? Is it A4 sized? Digest? Letter? Tabloid?
Wait, am I getting too focused on the actual paper quality of the magazine and not the content within? That’s because we’re here to take a deep dive into the production and paper stock of our favorite gaming magazines from the 90s.
What is A4?
Can I have a show of hands; how many people really notice a magazine’s dimensions and paper stock? I know I’m a bit odd, but I’ve always noted when there was a format change to an existing magazine, or a new title launched with a bespoke size.
In the US, the most common magazine size you’ll find is 8.5 x 11 inches. Which is the same paper size you’d use in a standard printer. Boring, right. Until you realise this is entirely unique to the US. The rest of the world uses an A4 format as standard, which is 8.3 x 11.7 inches.
Famous magazines like Vogue and Rolling Stone are larger and measure 9.5 x 12 inches and 10 x 12 inches, respectively. There are also smaller options, referred to as digest size. These measure 5.5 x 8.25 inches. Think of an old Readers Digest, for example. I’d find this at my grandma’s house as a kid.
Moving weight
The weight and quality of a magazine’s paper stock isn’t insignificant. It can impact both the look and feel of a publication, and the reading experience.
Paper is measured in grams per square meter (or gsm) and scales with use. 90-100 gsm paper is like typical copy paper you’d find in a printer. A magazine cover would use heavier stock. Depending on quality and preference, this could be anywhere between the 150-300 gsm range. Obviously, thicker paper costs more, so some choices are made with budgets in mind.
Years ago, Marvel Comics reduced their cover stock to the same paper thickness as their internal pages. This created an outcry from some readers about the condition and collectibility of the issues. For others, it read just the same.
This might be a good time to mention that comic books have saddle stitch binding, which means they fold over and are stapled to be bound. The common option you see with periodicals is what’s called perfect binding. The pages are collated into smaller groups and typically glued together to create a squared spine that the cover wraps over. Exciting, isn’t it?
Now that the journey through the common sizes and styles is out of the way, let’s start looking back at some standout gaming magazines from the 90s. I want to share a few heavy hitters and break down their publication journeys and sizing choices. Maybe you noticed these things, or maybe this will be the first time you think about them. Either way, let’s take a closer look.
Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)
EGM was always one of my favorite magazines of the 1990s (and even into the early 2000s). The first issue was released in March 1989, and over time the magazine would become the most influential gaming magazine on the market.
EGM always kept a consistent standard US size. The early issues were saddle-stitched and felt of the era. With issue 14 they began using a more modern title on the cover, and in the early 90s, around issue 26, they switched to perfect binding as their page counts grew.
Their cover stock was also what you’d expect from magazines of the era. It was a glossy print in the early years, but in the mid-90s they switched to a clean matte finish. Nothing beats getting one of those November or December issues in your hands, with hundreds of pages and its hefty weight. Sure, there were a lot of ads, and that was the primary reason for the increased page
count, but the perception of value was all my younger self needed.
Game Informer
Game Informer has had two distinct formats. Initially, it was the house magazine for Funco and its retail stores. In 1993 it was made available on newsstands. Throughout this era (and into the early 2000s) it maintained saddle-stitched binding.
This was unique as competitors like GamePro and EGM upgraded from the saddle-stitching in the early 90s, and people really didn’t see this in periodicals outside of the comic book industry.
Even though Game Informer had a newsstand presence, its primary sales were through in-store subscription sales, which meant it didn’t need to have the same production quality to win over casual readers in newsagents. Hence the cheaper saddle stitched binding.
After Funcoland was acquired by Barnes & Noble they merged with Software Etc. and Babbage’s to become GameStop. This consolidation saw increased market presence and a
big boom in subscription sales. Around this time, circa, 2001, the magazine was 10.75 x 9 inches, but more modern issues are 10.5 x 8 inches in size. They used a glossy cover from those early years through the late 2000s, with only modern issues using a matte finish. I always remember it being a thicker stock, too.
Next Generation (NextGen)
Next Generation had an odd publication history but always used quality paper and cover stock. They began their first run titled Next Generation in January of 1995 and had a focus on the upcoming and existing 32-bit consoles. It was initially a ‘leaner’ publication at only 8 inches wide. Still, it always felt like a quality product with thick paper stock.
In 1999 there was a rebrand and redesign, and they began calling themselves NextGen. Later, in 2000, they attempted a wider print, going to 9 inches, but this lasted less than a year. What made this magazine more memorable to me was the older tone, with a focus on the industry and games development over surface-level previews, strategies, and cheats. In my opinion, the quality of the print always matched its tone.
Retro Gamer
Giant-sized gaming goodness! Retro Gamer is the “newest” magazine on this list, it’s also the only UK release I am covering. They are still published today, and you can easily spot their covers on newsstands. They print in the A4 size, which is taller and wider than the average periodical. They also have a similarly thick cover to NextGen, with a glossy finish. It almost feels like book quality.
One really cool design note about their perfect bound spines - each year is a different color that contains a partial logo, so when they are all lined up and in order, you see a complete color block and logo. It is really neat to see and encourages collection. Great job to their design team!
Official US PlayStation Magazine (OPM)
Big issues with demo discs came at a bigger price. The Official US PlayStation Magazine (or OPM) was published by the same company that also published EGM, so many of the editors were familiar to readers of both magazines as they often had history on both sides.
Either way, OPM used a larger format that helped it stand out on the shelf. They had glossy covers, but the stock wasn’t as thick as some other rivals. The magazine first launched in October 1997 and ran for nearly 10 years. The big draw here was that every issue featured a demo disc included in a paper sleeve with a tear-away perforated opening. As a reader, I didn’t always get to buy one off the newsstand because of its increased price, but when I did, I had to also check that the demo disc wasn’t stolen.
